EGU2020-5062
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5062
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The Climate Benefit of Carbon Sequestration

Carlos Sierra1, Susan Crow2, Martin Heimann1,3, Holger Metzler1, and Ernst-Detlef Schulze1
Carlos Sierra et al.
  • 1Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Department of Biogeochemical Processes, Jena, Germany (csierra@bgc-jena.mpg.de)
  • 2University of Hawaii Manoa
  • 3University of Helsinki

Ecosystems play a fundamental role in climate change mitigation by taking up carbon from the atmosphere and storing it for a period of time in organic matter. Although climate impacts of carbon emissions can be quantified by global warming potentials, there is not a formal metric to assess climate benefits of carbon removals by sinks. We introduce here the Climate Benefit of Sequestration (CBS), a metric that quantifies the radiative effect of taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and retaining it for a period of time in an ecosystem before releasing it back to the atmosphere.  To quantify CBS, we also propose a formal definition of carbon sequestration (CS) as the integral of a sequestered amount of carbon over the time horizon it remains stored in an ecosystem. Both metrics incorporate the separate effects of i) inputs (amount of atmospheric carbon removal), and ii) transit time (time of carbon retention) in carbon sinks, which can vary largely for different ecosystems or management types. In three separate examples, we show how to compare different carbon management practices in forestry and soils using CS and CBS. We believe these metrics can be useful in resolving current controversies about the management of ecosystems for climate change mitigation. 

How to cite: Sierra, C., Crow, S., Heimann, M., Metzler, H., and Schulze, E.-D.: The Climate Benefit of Carbon Sequestration, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-5062, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5062, 2020

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